Americade report, 2007

Another month come and gone, with mostly the mundane to report: a lot of waiting to recover from last month’s entry; dealing with a water heater flooding the basement, that kind of thing.

I went up to Lake George for Americade today, with plans to return again tomorrow. I’ve been going up when the weather mostly cooperates -- I’ve seen 50 degrees and cold rain one day, followed by 90 degrees and sunburn the next -- on and off, since it began in the late ‘80’s. This year there was a mission: ride street fighters. This is a category of motorcycle which began from rebuilding sportbikes after they’d been crashed, losing most of their bodywork. They have an aggressive rearset peg position, but higher, straighter bars for a more upright riding position, VS my stretch to clip-ons.

My desire to look into this class of motorcycle has been enhanced suddenly by injury last month and the realization that time marches on. I hate that. It may be a blast to ride my GSX-R750 for short bursts, but longer stints are not so much fun. There is a lot of weight bias on my wrists and strain on shoulders and lower back that are really reducing the fun of riding. Aside from temps in the high 40’s this morning as I started the 60ish mile sprint north, the pain in my right wrist resulting from the crash last month was very annoying. It may be time to pursue options.

Choices are limited, but today I rode a Triumph Speed Triple. This may be the bike credited with starting the genre. With it’s 1050 engine and short wheelbase, it was a blast to ride. It handles great and the power never seems overwhelming or scary. Some bikes are just user friendly and you don’t have to worry so much about them jumping up and biting you. This bike is also just plain cool with it’s trick single-sided swingarm to it’s bug-eyed lights. Downsides include: it’s a bit pricey, and not for sale within 150 miles of my house.

Last ride of the day was a Kawasaki Z1000. Purpose built, this bike uses some form of the engine found in the monster ZX-10 and has no lack of steam. Riding impressions included “This thing will leave the Speed Triple for dead.” While it may not have the Triumph’s classic, “just crashed an expensive European sportbike” organic form, it makes tons of power and has razor sharp handling. Some of the Transformer styling cues can be overcome in the aftermarket, and other plusses include it’s 3/4’s the price of the Triumph and available 6 miles from my house.

Both of these bikes were great fun to ride, and neither caused me physical distress. The circumstances presented allowed me to ride the big Kawi at about twice the speed of the Triumph, and while I’d like to ride them back-2-back, I’m pretty sure the Z1000 provides more grins per mile.